Thursday, January 14, 2010

The only council in the country charging motorcyclists to park

There is no rhyme or reason as to why Westminster Council are continuing down this route in the face of growing public opposition. Perhaps there is more to this than meets the eye. Who really makes the money when the claim is 'it's revenue neutral?'

Is that before or after the operating costs and payments to private contractors?

Motorcyclists will be charged to park in central London after council bosses approved the scheme.Westminster will charge riders £1 a day for on-street parking from Monday 25 January, making it the first London authority to do so.

Thirty motorcycle parking road signs have been vandalised or stolen in the past five days, taking the cost of attacks directed at the scheme to £60,000 since trials began in August 2008.The council has stepped up surveillance and says it will prosecute anyone found attacking the signs, which list regulations and hours.

Today Westminster said it was fair that riders should pay to park at about 6,100 on-street spaces after “dramatic” increases in demand for parking in central London.It said that motorcycle ownership in the capital had soared by 50 per cent between 1997 and 2007 and that even before the rise, motorcycle bays in Westminster were oversubscribed by up to 150 per cent.

Motorcyclists have staged protests to defend free parking and websites challenging the plans have sprung up.One site — www.nutsville.com — has pictures of damaged parking signs and tells riders that if a sign has been vandalised, they should refuse to pay.

Warren Djanogly, chairman of the “No To Bike Parking Tax Campaign”, said: “Motorcycles are part of the solution to transport; they do not cause high pollution or congestion.”Westminster says it has listened to motorcyclists and increased the number of bays by 55 per cent.It anticipates that the final scheme will be revenue neutral, but says any surplus will be invested in transport.